- So we're gonna just watch a little bit of a segment hereon one of your multi-cam shootsto get a sense of what's going on.But, of course, anyone watching this can go toYoutube and watch the entire thing.- Yeah, youtube.com/sesamestreet.- Perfect. All right.Do you wanna set us up before we, what, where are we at?- This is a street story called Numeric Con.They have their version of Comic Con on setthat is celebrating numbers, and so this oneis near and dear to me because it's probablyone of the geekiest things we've done.

Sesame's always doing incredible parodies,but this one really revolves around the comic universe,and so right now, Elmo, this is his first timeat a Numeric Con with Leela.Elmo is the Dark Nine.Right now they're 'bout to visit Fiverineand get his signature.- Thank you for the setup.And here we go.- I cannot wait to go home and tell my mother.- Boy, well, Elmo can't wait to get an autograph like dad.- Yeah.Oh, oh! Looks like we don't have to wait long, buddy!- Okay. Who's next?- Me, me!Hey, Fiverine. How you doing?Hey. I'm a huge fan.

I cannot believe I'm meeting you. I just need toshake your hand.Ooh.Uh-oh.- My crayons, you broke all five of my crayons.- Oh, I'm so sorry, Fiverine.- I use those crayons to sign autographs quickly.Now what am I going to do?- Oh, no!Now I'm never gonna get his autograph.- Worst convention ever.- Looks like they need a real number hero again, Leela.- Go to work Dark Nine.

- Stand back, everybody.The Dark Nine has a crayon for Fiverine.- Thanks, kid, but that's one crayon.Signing five lines with just one crayonis gonna take much longer.- Unless you don't sign with five lines.- But, Elmo, he's Fiverine.He has to sign with five lines.- But, Chris, there are other ways to show five.- Hey, yeah, that's true.- Like what other ways?- Well, Fiverine could just draw a number five like this.

♫ Do-do-do-doo ♫See?- Hey, that's the number fivelike the one on my patented Fiverine superhero suit.- Okay (laughs).All right. So this you would say is a fairly typicalmulti-cam shoot that...Well, take us through kind of production.Where you on the set for this one advisingfor this particular one? - I actually was not.- Okay. - Yeah, yeah.- So you got the footage. - I got the footage.- And how was the footage delivered to youand how do you work with it beyond that?- We have a control room PAwho will log the footagefor buys and holds and with time code,and we'll use that to then importwith the multi-cam cut.

So I'll get this with the script,the March script from the director,and my first pass with it is...It's two-folded.It's showing the director exactly every angleand everything that they got.Even if editorially I might thinkthat an angle doesn't work, I make sure to put itthat way they see everything that they have,and then later it'll educate whether or notwe should necessarily use that angle.But this one in particular, I think there wasmore than one stop down and reframing the camerasin order to achieve the multiple angles.

But, yeah, this is fairly typical.They'll shoot a setup with a wide shot,and then choose specific close-ups, but all that is reallydecided at the script level with the director,where the cameras are gonna be andhow they're going to cover it.I know editorially that can changedepending on if something's not working,or if we feel like we need to besomewhere else at that moment.- And something like this, what do you like the mostabout cutting multi-cam and what are the biggest challengesin multi-cam cutting?- One of the things that's the most fun for me isbeing able to creatively choose, again,when and where we should be,not just the technical end of it,but story-telling wise I am given freedom to help decidewhat we should be looking at in any given moment.

So it's every gratifying to be a partof that story-telling process.Once everything's been captured,as the editor then you get to help choosehow best to tell that story,and multi-cam really makes it a smooth processbecause you're worrying less about continuityand more about story.How can we get here, how can we get thereand as quickly and as comprehensively as possible?I think one of the challenges with multi-cam,with Sesame, while they're shooting, when one camera,they'll have tally lights so when one camera moves away,they're already repositioning for their next shot.

We have incredible cameramen that knowonce they've got the shot they need, they move on to wherethey need to be next.And so the challenge for me is being able to findto the very last frame that I can get away withhaving a shot before the camera's already moving onto something next.- Okay.All right. Interesting.And then is it multi-cam and multi-group?Do they go through multiple takeswithin one multi-cam shoot, so you're working withmany multi-cam clips in a multi-group?- Yes, yes, correct.

So let's say they do five takes.All five of those takes will be shot multi-cam.The performers, while they're performing,they're looking at a monitor that's below themwhile they're performing above them,so it's crucial for them to work with the TD and the ADto know what the camera's seeing at any given momentso that way eye line's working for them,and they're educated to see where they are in the frame.So part of rehearsing and getting through the shotis knowing exactly what camera is on you and when.- Mm-hmm.

- Definitely.- And then timing up those moments in post,you know, is fun and can be challenging for the reasonsthat you mentioned.Before we go on to kind of another style,is there anything else you'd like to sayabout working in multi-cam on Sesame Street?- I mean, something that's fun about workinga multi-cam on Sesame Street for me isbeing able to choose from more than one take momentssince the performers and the director already knowwhen they were intending a close-upand when they were intending a wide shot and et cetera.

And it's consistent from take to take.I'll then be able to go back and start withthe director's buy and hold,but then make some editorial decisionsthat this close-up of Fiverine might be better than anotherand so having that luxury to take specific pieces outand replace them with other takesbecause of the process of multi-camand not having to worry necessarily too muchif it will work in terms of continuity.

So the by takes are usually incredible,but there's, as any production, there's moments where,"Oh, someone said this better," or"This performance looked better."So we're able to then start to createthe final piece that goes to air, yeah.